Fang and Claw
by AlfieTimewolf
Summary: Two strangers appear in the cafe, neither of which are human. Rubbish summary, I know, but please give it a shot! Title will also definitely change in the future. Eventual Hal/OC & Tom/OC
1. Tea and Blood

**Disclaimer **I don't own Being Human, Hal, Annie, Tom, baby Eve or any other characters - they belong to Toby Whithouse and the BBC. I own my two OCs though, Loki and Rosie.

**Author's Note **I have fallen in love with Damien Molony (Hal), he is gorgeous. Have you heard his accent? He's Irish! Wait, hang on a second, I'm getting off topic.

What I was going to say was that even though this is a Hal/OC and Tom/OC, that won't be happening until the end of series four. A little flirting, a lot of blushing, bits of fluff, the usual.

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**Being Human**

**Chapter One - Tea and Blood**

"That will be three pound forty, please," Hal informed the young man standing opposite him as he placed two cup holders, each holding four cups of tea, onto the counter. The young man scooped out whatever money he had in his pocket and tossed it haphazardly onto the counter before grabbing the teas and fleeing out the door without so much as a thank you. "Come back soon."

"Cheeseburger with chips, extra salt – no tomatoes or mushrooms?" Tom asked the almost empty Café – besides the antisocial couple sitting in the far corner, an elderly man and his granddaughter sitting at a window table, and a man in a scruffy business suit arguing quietly over the phone, all locals of course. The suited man waved Tom over without a word and the werewolf complied, walking around the counter and setting the plate in front of him.

As Hal collected the money strewn across the countertop – which added up to four pounds and twenty three pence in loose change – to put into the till and Tom returned to the kitchen, the Café door opened again and a young woman with multi-coloured hair rushed in holding her nose tightly. Hal tensed as he picked up the strong scent of blood.

"Hey," she greeted, her blue eyes shining in the rare sunlight coming through the open door. "Can I get two white teas and a handful of napkins?"

When she smiled shyly, Hal noticed she was missing two teeth on her lower left side, the gums were still bleeding as blood dribbled out of her nose – she'd lost her teeth very recently it seemed, they weren't broken away, they were completely gone.

"Of course," Hal choked out as he turned and quickly grabbed half a dozen neat, white napkins before handing them over – she took them gratefully with a smile, and Hal swore he caught a glimpse of white beginning to grow out of the gum. How very unusual. "That'll be eighty-four pence, please."

"Sorry, right," she slid her un-bloodied hand into her pocket and lifted out a pound. "Keep the change, I'll be right back."

Before Hal could say anything, she was out the door and away, he shrugged his shoulders and dropped the pound into the till then turned to make the teas.

"Loki, I am so sorry." An American voice apologised as the multi-coloured haired woman returned to the café, this time leading her friend in.

"Rosie, it's fine – it was an accident." The woman, Loki, replied. Her nose had stopped bleeding and now she was just cleaning away the blood.

Loki's hair was mainly white, snow white, with small streaks of cobalt blue and tomato red. The tips of her short hair were golden yellow; her fringe was a grassy green – absolutely bizarre, and a little intimidating.

"How can I make it up to you?" Rosie asked, sitting down at a table for two that Loki had pointed to. "Anything."

Rosie had fiery ginger hair that fell in waves to her shoulders; it was a mixture of natural shades – much more normal than her flamboyant companion's hair.

Hal realised immediately that she was a vampire, or part vampire at least – her scent was a blend of vampire and human. He couldn't tell whether Loki was human or not, she didn't smell like anything he'd ever met before. Tom, being the highly trained hunter that he was, also noticed the vampire when she'd walked in, but didn't suspect her friend of being one.

"Just don't do it again." Loki smiled at Rosie before turning and winking at Hal as she lifted the teas and went to sit down.

'She knows,' Hal thought, running through his memories to try and figure out what the colourful haired young woman was. 'She knows what I am.'

"How long will we be staying for this time?" Rosie asked Loki as she took a sip of the tea placed in front of her, like an offering.

"Publishing short story collections and playing music wherever will take me aren't very profitable businesses these days," Loki sighed and took a gulp of her own tea; the hot liquid burnt the back of her throat before she swallowed. "A few weeks, a month or two at the most."

"I love your stories, especially your poetry." Rosie offered, trying to cheer her white haired companion up.

"No one else seems to, that's why we're always moving around," Loki rolled her eyes before lowering her head with a remorseful feeling. "Sorry about that."

'I wonder if she's any good…' Hal thought after listening to their conversation and turned his attention to Tom rattling about in the kitchen. 'Loki isn't a very specific search though.'

"Loki Frost, don't you every apologise for that ever again." Rosie rebuked her.

'That's better,' Hal mentally approved. 'Loki Frost… Where have I heard that name before?'

"Right," Loki backed down with a sigh before finishing her tea and standing up. "Come on, work in the morning."

"Wait," Rosie leaned across and wrapped her fingers around Loki's wrist in an almost bone-crushing grip. "What about _her_?"

"Her who?" Loki asked with furrowed eyebrows, she knew that if she had been human she'd be nursing a shattered wrist at that moment.

"The war child." Rosie whispered, thinking only Loki would be able to hear her.

Hal froze, his muscles locking him in place as he picked up the three words he prepared himself to hear any time a Vampire might wander into the café. How much did she know? Did she know where Eve was? Would she go after her?

"Where the hell did you here that from?" Loki growled, and from the expression on Rosie's face, Hal could work out that she didn't normally do that.

"I heard a group of vampires talking about it when we stopped in Hereford to refuel," Rosie mumbled, nervous to talk about the topic after seeing Loki's reaction. "They said that she's going to kill all the vampires," – the red head looked up at her companion with watery grey eyes – "I don't want to die."

"You're not going to die," Loki whispered back with another sigh and scratched her forehead before resting her hand on the table. "You're not even a _vampire_."

"I'm _part_ vampire." Rosie hissed quietly in reply.

Hal watched the two out of the corner of his eye as he stared wiping down the counter, his ears pricked at their conversation.

'So I was right.' Hal thought, a small smile on his face as he felt a little chuffed with himself. He didn't miss when Loki gripped the edges off the table so hard that he heard an almost inaudible crack from the wood, one hand flew to her stomach while the other to her mouth. Rosie stood up to help, but was pushed back down.

"Stay here." Loki ordered as she rushed out of the café and around the corner, where an empty alley way lay. This left Rosie sitting on her own at the table with an empty and half-empty cup of tea sitting in front of her, she seemed similar in body language to a child that had accidentally been left behind in a shopping centre.

"Sorry." Rosie whispered as she wrapped her hands around her half empty mug of tea and took another sip, all she could do now was wait for Loki's return. After five minutes, she became worried. When eight minutes had past, she was beyond nervous.

Loki returned finally, after a tense eleven minutes – each second of which Rosie had counted, each second of which Hal himself found he had been counting.

"Much better," Loki breathed out as she made her way to Rosie, to which the elderly man stood and exited with his granddaughter. Loki's closed hand was placed on the table in front of Rosie, she opened her fingers and two white teeth landed on the table. "You can keep these. How many is it now?"

"Seven…" Rosie confessed, a light blush creeping across her cheeks.

"Seven," Loki laughed as Rosie finished her tea. "If they didn't grow back afterwards I'd probably be pissed off."

"Hal, I think the counters clean enough," Tom interrupted said Vampire's train of thought, looking out amongst the costumers to see who was left in the café before his eyes landed on Rosie. "You should go and collect the dishes at table three."

"Yes, of course." Hal nodded his head and went to collect the dirty plates and cutlery used by the elderly man and his granddaughter; he walked past two young women to the window table, glancing at them out of the corner of his eye.

"We should get going," Loki suggested, and Rosie nodded her head in agreement before standing up – grabbing the teeth and pocketing them as she did. Loki looked past Rosie towards the vampire collecting up the dishes as they made their way towards the open door. "Thanks for the tea, Hal."

"Oh," Hal stood straight in surprise, both hands full of dishes. He caught sight of Loki leaving last, a playful smile on her face before disappearing completely from view – he noticed that she had all her teeth back again. "Good bye."

After Loki and Rosie had left, the business man had gotten annoyed and dunked his phone into his coffee – he fished it out after finishing his burger before hastily leaving though – then the antisocial couple made a move.

Hal and Tom closed up the café and headed back to the B&B, and for the rest of the day nothing much happened. Annie was steadily returning to her normal self, the death of George had affected her more than it had Tom, and Hal had never even met him before so didn't know how to react to the situation. Tom was at peace with the loss of McNair, having gotten his revenge. But Hal, he was silently struggling with Leo and Pearl leaving him.

"How was work? All good at the café?" Annie asked with a smile as the two had walked through the front door; baby Eve bobbing up and down in her arms.

"Yes, fine, dandy," Hal listed before Annie placed the baby into his arms. "Wait, what are you doing?"

"Going to make you both a nice cup of tea." Annie replied as she turned tail and disappeared into the kitchen, the sound of the kettle clicking signalled it was boiling.

"A new vampire came into the café today." Tom informed the ghost as he followed her into the kitchen, leaving Hal standing awkwardly in the living room holding Eve.

"Did they cause any trouble?" Annie questioned as she lifted down to mugs from the cupboard and dropped a teabag in each one.

"Nah, she jus' sat there with her friend," Tom assured as the kettle clicked again. "All nice like, quiet."

"And what about her friend? A vampire as well?" Annie was just trying to be thorough as she poured the scalding water into the mugs.

"No, I don't know what she is. She ain't human though." Tom answered truthfully, as he always did, McNair had brought him up not to lie – unless absolutely necessary, then it was fine.

"She isn't a werewolf either," Hal continued as he entered the kitchen, the two way door swinging on its hinges. "They know about Eve."

"What?" Annie gasped, almost dropping the cup of tea she was handing over to Tom. "Do they know where she is? Is she safe? Neither of you are going to work until they leave town, I can't loose-"

"Annie!" Hal snapped her out of her panic. "Eve is fine, they don't seem to be interested in her."

Meanwhile, in a different part of Barry, a fox was stalking a larger Tabby cat. The cat was a third bigger than the fox, but for some reason the mad rust furred fox was hunting the feline.

The Cat finally had had enough and turned around to strike the fox with its claws, the fox stopped and took a step back, they stared at each other for a moment before the cat watched in something close to horror as the fox grew and shape shifted into a dark furred coyote that was a lot more than twice the size of the cat.

The fox-turned-coyote made quick work of the cat, and as the feline hung dead from the coyote's jaws, the canine transformed once again - growing bigger, this time into a human. A human with multicoloured white hair.

Loki held the cat in her hand as she made her way back to the mouth of the alley way, blood from the cat dripping a trail behind her. A messenger bag sat almost obediently at the start of the alley, she opened it and dropped the cat in - on top of three squirrels, another cat, a fellow fox and a badger.

"Did you catch anything?" Rosie asked as Loki returned to their hotel room, biting her nail as her companion walked in with the messenger bag slung over her shoulder. She took the bag off and threw it to the half-vampire, who caught it hungrily and feverishly ripped it open to get at the contents.

Loki Frost, she wasn't human, or a vampire, or a werewolf - but she was a shape shifter, a Canine shape shifter. Born in the late 1860s to two pure blood canine shape shifters as well, she'd lived through the sinking of the Titanic and two world wars.

Rosemary (Rosie) Hearts, a half-human half-vampire creature known as a Dhampiresa. Her mother was human, and her father the vampire. Unlike her companion, she'd been born much later in the 1950s.

Loki had found Rosie in a street in London feeding on a human, she saved the guy and decided to take the young half-vampire under her wing and help her. After losing both her parents, Rosie happily took the helping hand.

"Don't make a mess, the last thing we want are the police again." Loki reminded her charge as she walked into the small bathroom to take a shower, Rosie was to focused in draining the little animals of blood to pay attention.

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**Tell me what you think, I feel like I've walked into uncharted territory with this story. But I _really_ wanted to write a fanfic for Hal, because even though he's tempermental and could go off the rails at any time - I love him.**

**Reviews would be excellent! Don't forget!**


	2. Milk and Strings

**Disclaimer **I don't own Being Human, Hal, Annie, Tom, baby Eve or any other characters - they belong to Toby Whithouse and the BBC. I own my two OCs though, Loki Frost and Rosie Hearts.

**Author's Note **Very special thanks to Dalonega Noquisi and Snowy702 for reviewing chapter One.

This isn't going as well as I'd hoped, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll pick up soon.

I can't remember if I said this in the last chapter, but this takes place a week or two before Kirby turns up - Set during Series 4, just before episode 4.

* * *

**Being Human**

**Chapter Two - Milk and Strings**

The next morning held promises of being a good day, the sky was clear and the sun was shining once again - it was best to take advantage of the positive weather while they had it.

Annie was feeding baby Eve when Hal woke up, by the time they were finished Tom was dressed and eating his breakfast.

"Goodbye, Annie." Hal called as he and Tom walked out the door, shutting it firmly behind them before making there way to open up the cafe for that day - the good weather might bring in more costumers than usual.

The first hour of the cafe being open was peaceful and uneventful, a few regulars wandered in for a cup of tea and a sandwich, but that was it.

The only thing to disrupt the quiet was the occasional noise of birds chattering away to each other, that is, until someone stood on the other side of the road playing a guitar. It was unusual for such a sound to be heard live in Barry and not on the radio, so Tom was standing in the open doorway looking for the source as soon as he heard it.

Loki stood across the road in a form fitting white tank top splashed with several different colours and a fresh pair of jeans along with the black Converse she'd worn the day before, she held a faded black acoustic guitar to her body using her hands - a brown strap attached to the guitar on either end crossed her back to keep the instrument up. She strummed the taut strings softly, her fingers changed position at the top of the guitars neck to create the different notes that made up the current rhythm she was playing. Sitting at her feet was a top hat turned upside down, it was the traditional black and looked old, scruffy from wear but also had a modern style to it. She was busking - but surely a guitar case would be easier to use than a top hat?

"She's brilliant, ain't she Hal?" Tom asked the vampire with a smile as he turned to him.

"Yes, she plays well." Hal replied, trying not to seem interested in the mysterious young guitarist-slash-writer. He'd found a book of hers, or by someone with the same name from the 70s, Loki herself couldn't have looked older than 23, 25 at the max - she wasn't human though, so he assumed she had been around for a while.

The book he'd found had been a collection of short stories, the book had been called 'To Be The Reaper and other such stories...'. Hal found that the first four he'd read we're rather good; the first had been a first hand account of the Grim Reaper, the second had been about the loss of a Mother and Father, the third had been the longest and an account about the voyage of the Titanic - a luxurious ship build in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the early 1900s - before and after she sank, the final one he'd read had been about the loss of a dear Teacher to a student. They were truthful, and emotional, and felt very real indeed.

"Nah, she's brilliant." Tom corrected him before watching Loki for a bit again.

"Hello!" she called over to Tom with a smile as she continued playing, her finger movement never faltering as she smiled at the werewolf.

"Hiya!" Tom waved back, he turned to give a smile at Hal before turning back. "Would ya like a cuppa?"

"I'd love one!" Loki grinned back. "Very milky, no sugar, please!"

"Right you are!" Tom confirmed as he padded back into the cafe and began making he offered cup of tea.

"I shall bring her it, Tom." Hal informed the werewolf, peeling off his gloves before taking the hot beverage from him.

"Rightio." Tom shrugged with a smile.

Hal gave him a glance before walking out of the cafe in his uniform and apron, he looked both ways and then crossed the street to the guitar playing young woman.

"Here you are." Hal announced, holding the tea out for her to take.

"Thanks, Hal," Loki grinned at him, she strummed the strings one more time before removing her hands from the guitar and taking the tea. "Very kind of you to bring it out to me, I could have just came over for it."

"You were playing, I didn't want to disturb you." Hal responded.

"Thank you, again," she said before taking a sip of the tea. "Shape shifter."

"I'm sorry, what?" Hal furrowed his eyebrows, that had been a bit random.

"A Shape shifter, that's what I am. A canine shape shifter." Loki cleared it for him, she'd noticed he'd been trying to figure her out yesterday.

"Of course, a shape shifter," Hal exclaimed, as if he'd just been given the answer to a particularly difficult riddle. "Why hadn't I thought of that?"

"Canine Shape shifter," Loki corrected him. "I can only shape shift into canine animals - it's an inherited thing."

"Ah, I see," Hal nodded his head, he was fascinated by multiform shape shifters. "Why haven't I met one of you before?"

"Probably because there isn't many of us left," she replied with another sip of tea, the sun illuminated the colours in her hair. "We used to be very popular pets for vampires back in the 18th, 19th century."

"Pets?" Hal questioned, if they'd been so popular why had he no had one when he'd been at the top of his game back in the day. He stopped thinking a moment, he wasn't that person anymore.

"The old ones were exceptionally fond of us, I'm surprised you didn't know," Loki replied, taking another sip of tea before setting the half-empty cup at her feet to finish later. "They liked us for security reasons, much less messy and more useful than werewolves, apparently - two traits of the perfect pet."

Hal noticed that, even though it sounded like it should have been a touchy subject, Loki talked about it with no bitterness or hatred.

"I've never had a pet," Hal replied without thinking, then adverted his eyes away from her as she started smiling. "Always too busy."

"Aw, that's too bad then, pets are great for people," Loki spoke like she'd seen it, maybe she'd been someone's pet at some point. "They help to cheer people up and goes them a sense of responsibility - something like that."

Hal nodded his head but stayed quiet as Loki began playing again, it had a very mellow-rock beat to it - and sounded very similar to _Green Day_'s '21 Guns' song, the only way to confirm the tune would be if she sang.

"Do you know what's worth fighting for? When it's not worth dying for," Loki sang softly after a few strums; she didn't have the vocal cords of an angel, or sound like a world class act, but she still had quite a talent for singing, and playing the guitar. "Does it take your breath away, and you feel yourself suffocating?"

The centuries old vampire wasn't well informed about the current music, he only knew about the odd singer or two - he'd have to look up the band that wrote the song she was singing, he realised he quite liked the tune.

"I read some of your work." Hal informed her softly, and she stopped singing, but continued the rhythm of strumming the guitar's strings.

"Oh, which one? I've written a few." Loki asked looking away from her changing fingers into his eyes.

"To Be The Reaper." Hal relayed the title of the book.

"And other such stories," Loki finished, it was more the caption of the book that the end of the title. "You couldn't have read them all in one night, which ones did you read?"

"The first four," Hal confirmed that he hadn't read the whole volume of short stories, she raised an eyebrow in question and he continued. "Out of the four, your description of the Titanic was breath-taking, was it from experience or just well researched?"

"I was there when they were building it, twenty-five years of age, watching as the people from Belfast worked and worked," Loki replied, she had stopped ageing in 1901, or had it been 1902? "I followed over from Belfast and boarded in Southampton. Second-class was all I could afford at the time, where I stayed was absolutely amazing, I couldn't have began to imagine what First-class looked like."

"Did you lose anyone?" Hal questioned, if she had it hadn't been mentioned in the short story.

"No, thankfully," Loki counted herself lucky, whole families had been lost when the great ship had sank. "My parents had stayed in England with my brother and sister."

"I had been too busy dealing with some... important matter and missed my chance to buy a ticket, I count myself lucky," Hal sighed, his eyes flickered down to her moving fingers before into Loki's blue eyes. "If you don't mind me asking, what was it like?"

"Not at all. Now, where do I start..." Loki mumbled to herself as she finished the song and silenced the strings with her hand. "On the 10th of April in Southampton, the docks had been-"

"Loki!" a voice squeaked, interupting what she had about to tell Hal. "Why did you leave me alone? I thought you'd left me!"

"Don't be so dramatic, Rosie," Loki breathed with a roll of her eyes as the Dhampiresa appeared and stood beside the multi-colour haired shape shifter, clutched in her hands was the case of a Violin - but whether it was empty or not was another thing though. Loki bent down to her top hat and lifted out a single pound coin, she stood and handed it to Hal. "For my tea, and one for Rosie please, Hal. If you'd be so kind."

"Yes, right." Hal nodded and gingerly took the pound from her, he gave Rosie a nod of acknowledgement before spinning on his heel and walking back into the cafe.

"Where'd you go? I was worried!" Rosie gushed, a light pink flush tinting her pale cheeks.

"I thought I'd get an early start, this the third place I've been at since six," Loki confessed with a cheeky grin, she nudged the top hat with the tip of her Converse and the coins held inside it scraped together as the slid over one another. "And I felt that you needed a lie in."

"Well... thanks," Rosie hushed out, a blush creeping up her neck and darkening her face further, she lifted the Violin case a little higher to make sure that Loki saw it. "Where will I, uh... be playing?"

"Where I am, we'll just take turns and share my hat," Loki smiled and gestured down to the upside-down top hat lying on the ground with her head. Loki didn't usually leave Rosie on her own, the young half-vampire tended to... fall off the wagon, so to speak, when not supervised around humans. Loki had actually been a little surprised when Rosie had managed to find her without butchering someone, or a group of people. Maybe she ran the whole way? Followed her scent? It didn't really matter, just so long as no one got hurt. "Do you have your sheet music?"

"Never go anywhere without them." Rosie smiled and gently rattled the Violin case, where the sheets of music - half of which she knew off by heart - were stored.

"Nice work, you get set up and start playing, I'm going to go grab your tea." Loki said as she set her guitar down against the wall behind Rosie before jogging across the road to the cafe, after looking both ways of course.

"Rightio!" Rosie called over as she started setting up.

Hal was stood behind the counter making Rosie's cup of tea when Loki entered, he was breathing deepily, as if trying to stop himself from vomiting.

"Hal?" Loki called cautiously as she stopped behind him on the other side of the front counter, the centuries old vampire bristled at his own name. "You alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Hal replied as he put a lid on the cup of tea and set it in front of Loki. "There you are, to go."

"You're a star, Hal," Loki grinned and before she could lift the tea her phone in her pocket began buzzing, she slid out her _iPhone_4 and unlocked the screen to answer the call. "Hello?"

"Miss Frost?" a voice questioned, not waiting for a reply. "I'm the manager of the Sunny Barry Hotel."

"Yes?" Loki asked nervously, had Rosie not cleaned up before she left?

"One of our cleaning maids found the carcasses of a badger and a fox lying in your room," the manager continued, a disgusted twist to his voice. "We'd like you to pack your bags and leave. Now."

"What?" Loki growled as she grabbed the tea and ran across the road to Rosie, narrowly being missed by a taxi as she handed the tea to Rosie. "How am I supposed to know how they got there?"

Without explaining to Rosie what was happening, Loki hang up and bolted down the street, back to the small hotel the pair had been renting a room at. Rosie sipped her tea before setting it at her feet, and that was how it was for a slow half an hour.

When Hal was on his fifteen minutes break, he crossed the road over to the young Dhampiresa, who stopped playing and kept her head bowed nervously.

"What's happening?" Hal asked the submissive half-vampire after he stepped in front of her.

"I don't kn-know." Rosie stuttered a reply.

"I believe the manager of your hotel is forcing you and Loki out," Hal answered for her. "Something to do with a fox and a badger?"

"Damnit..." Rosie ran an unsteady hand through her hair before slowly looking up at Hal. "I'm a blood drinker. An animal blood drinker. Loki went out last night and caught me a few things to feed on."

A red & white Mini drove up the street and parked a little further up the road, Loki stepped out of the car drinking a small carton of semi-skinned milk.

"We need to go," Loki informed Rosie sadly, screwing the green lid back onto the carton. "Isaac the manager phoned every hotel and B&B in Barry - warning them about us. We're lucky he didn't phone the police on us."

"Not every B&B," Hal butted in, he couldn't believe the words were coming out of his mouth. "Me and Tom, we live in a B&B - with a ghost, her name's Annie."

"Really, we couldn't intrude like that," Loki declined the offer politely. "It wouldn't be fair on you and your friends."

Hal found he didn't want the Canine Shape Shifter to leave just yet, but then again, there was little Eve to think about as well. Annie would freak out, although, extra help to guard Eve was always welcome.

"They won't mind, and there are plenty of rooms to spare," Hal was really trying to sell the idea to her. "You wouldn't be intruding."

"Well..." Loki looked at Rosie to see her smiling. "Okay, but only if Tom and Annie say it's fine."

"Great," Hal wrote the address down on a piece of paper and handed it to her. "Be there at half six."

"See you at half six then, bye." Loki had grabbed her guitar and emptied the money they'd earned into a pouch Rosie had on her belt before putting the top hat on her head as Hal had written down the address. She waved goodbye and climbed back into the car behind the wheel, Rosie following close behind.

"Bye." Hal waved as the car drove away, when it was out of sight he rushed into the cafe and straight into the kitchen to Tom. "Do you remember the two women in here yesterday?"

"Yeah." Tom replied as he remembered Rosie.

"I invited them to stay at the house." Hal cringed, waiting for Tom to get angry.

"Really?" Tom asked excitedly, before remembering baby Eve. "Annie's gonna kill you."

"I know." Hal sighed and got back to work.

Six O'Clock flew in, and at a quarter past they closed the cafe and almost ran home.

"Annie!" Tom called as they stepped over the threshold of the house.

"Sh! You'll set her off again." Annie came out of the kitchen to greet them.

"We need to talk." Hal said as the ghost sat at one of the stools at the bar; baby Eve lying quietly in her arms.

"What about?" Annie smiled, being her usual cheerful self.

"I accidentally invited to women to stay here." Hal replied and Annie's smile vanished.

"You did_ what_?" Annie growled.

"The nice two from the café yesterday." Tom continued.

"Oh, brilliant. Another vampire!" Annie hissed turning on Hal. "We're trying to _protect_ her!"

"She's only half vampire, and she drinks animal blood." Hal defended himself from the ghost's wrath.

"And what about the other one?" she demanded.

"She's a Canine Shape shifter," the vampire answered, having only found out himself that morning. "Do you have any idea how loyal they are? They were born to protect, she would be useful to have around."

"That's… slightly assuring, but I'm still cross!" Annie furrowed her eyebrows. "When do they get here?"

The doorbell rang, perfect timing.

"Now, I assume." Hal replied as Annie passed him Eve before answering the door.

"… Don't sulk, what's done is done." Annie heard as she opened the door to two young women, one ginger and the other with white hair and multi-coloured streaks.

"Can I help you?" Annie asked, wanting to make sure it was the right two. If they were just two humans, all they'd see would be an empty doorway.

"Hello, you must be Annie, I've heard so much about you," the multi-coloured haired woman turned and smiled to the ghost before holding out her hand, her companion gave her a disbelieving look. "I'm Loki Frost."

"I'm Annie, yes," she confirmed, cautiously shaking the stranger's hand. "I didn't think Tom and Hal talked about me at work."

"Oh no, they don't. I was told by other ghosts about you, Fergus and Nancy were very eager to talk about all the things you've done," Loki grinned, letting go of her hand. "Has anyone told you that you're brilliant?"

"Well…" Annie smiled bashfully. "No, I don't think so."

"This is my friend Rosie Hearts," Loki introduced her companion, the fiery red haired woman waved shyly. Loki noticed that Annie turned and glared over her shoulder at someone, before looking back at the pair. "Sorry, Hal said it was okay. We don't want to cause any friction. If you don't want us to stay, then we're off."

"No, no, it's alright. You better come in," Annie stepped to the side and allowed the two to enter the B&B. "Who's who?"

"I'm the Canine Shape Shifter," Loki smiled, waving a hello to Tom and Hal – then raising an eyebrow at the little baby in Hal's arms.

"I'm a Dhampiresa," Rosie replied as Annie closed the front door and followed them into the living room. "Half-vampire, half-human."

"And you don't drink human blood?" Annie made sure, as she took baby Eve from Hal.

"Strictly animals." Rosie assured, glancing at the ghost before down at her shoes.

"We'll obviously pay for the rooms," Loki added. "We wouldn't expect to stay for free."

"Go and get your bags," Annie told them. "Tom will show you to a few empty rooms."

Loki nodded her head and guided Rosie out the door to get their things, they were back a few moments later and led up the stairs to their temporary rooms.

"Are you sure Eve will be safe with them in the house?" Annie asked when she was certain they were out of earshot.

"Safer," Hal responded honestly. "Dhampires aren't prone to violence unless provoked. Canine shifters _always _protect their pack, especially so the young."

"So, it's good to have them in the house?" Annie questioned as she bobbed Eve up and down, Hal nodded his head as the three returned down the stairs.

"Rosie's in the room next to me, Loki's beside you, Hal." Tom informed the vampire and ghost.

"We need to talk," Annie said as she sat down in the armchair; Hal, Tom and Rosie also sat - Loki stayed on her feet leaning against the sofa. "How long do you plan on staying?"

"A month, maybe, two if that's alright?" Loki replied, and Annie nodded her head.

"We need to talk about Eve," Annie indicated towards the baby in her arms. "She's the War Child."

"I know she is." Loki nodded her head, whereas Rosie bristled at the news.

"She needs to be protected, and you're good at that, yes?" Annie asked her bluntly.

"The best," Loki smiled, giving Annie a small two fingered salute. "Just ask my siblings."

"So, you can shape shift into dogs?" Tom asked curiously.

"Canines," Loki corrected. "Dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes, so on and so forth."

"Could you show us?" the young werewolf questioned, she nodded her head. "Can you turn into a wolf?"

Loki thought for a moment before she shrank behind the sofa, a moment later a proud looking grey wolf with steely blue eyes walked out beside Tom.

"Wow..." Tom marvelled at the perfect creature beside him, refraining himself from reaching out and stroking her.

"Yes, that's impressive. We can't have a wolf in the house though," Annie said, and watched as the grey wolf morphed into a white German Shepherd - the blue eyes remained. "A fox?"

The Shepherd seemed to smirk before it moved to wards Annie, as the dog approached her, its body shrank while its white fur exploded into a fantastic dark orange colour. When Annie blinked next, sitting at her feet was a common red fox with fantastic bright blue eyes.

"I've never seen a shape shifter transform before," Hal confessed as he stared at the bushy tailed fox, the metamorphosis from one animal to the next had been fluid with no pause or hiccup. "Fascinating."

Annie tilted Eve so that she couldsee the fox, the vixen gingerly brought her muzzle up towards the baby - all the while watching the ghost to make sure it was alright. What the vixen hadn't expected was for a little fist to whack her on the nose, and Annie tensed to see what the fox would do. But nothing happened, althought a few seconds later the fox tilted her head down and sneezed before looking back up.

Canine shape shifters usually lived in kennels, much like vampires live in covens and Werewolves in packs. Their first instinct was to protect the young of the group, hurting a baby was completely against their nature.

Little Eve grabbed the vixen's whiskers and pulled them, over and over - she giggled a little in glee. Annie watched the small creature put up with the baby's antics in wonder, thinking that if she were the fox she'd have ran off by now - the shape shifter could be trusted. Although, Annie still wasn't quite sure about how far she could trust the Dhampiresa.

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**I've definitely walked into uncharted territory with this story. I still _really_ want to write a fanfic for Hal, he needs to loosen up - I love him.**

**A few reviews, any reviews, would be amazing.**


	3. Sugar and Worms

**Disclaimer **I don't own Being Human, Hal, Annie, Tom, baby Eve or any other characters - they belong to Toby Whithouse and the BBC. I own my two OCs though, Loki Frost and Rosie Hearts.

**Author's Note **Very special thanks to the following people for reviewing chapter 2;

Snowy702 - Hey, glad you enjoyed it. And remember, shout outs are cool! I also have no intention of stopping this story unless I get banned from this site (and really, how likely is that?)

make-mine-a-kiaora - Obviously every author wants their story to be unique, and I've found that when I try to make it different it doesn't work. So I've learned just to write away and if it's special, success. If not, oh well. And I like how Loki shifts as well, it's my favourite kind of shape shifting - the fluid ones. I too am looking forward to seeing where I can take this.

Dalonega Noquisi - Thank you for loving the shifting, I think it's neat too. I think I'm being a little harsh on Rosie, maybe I should go easy on her... Oh well, drama drama drama. That's an idea, Hal could help her. I like it. Here's your more.

Guest - Too perfect? You'll need to explain that to me, guest. I'm glad you want to read more, but I have no way of contacting you. Even though you asked me to email you when I update, how do I do that exactly?

kwj - GLAD YOU LOVE IT!

OCMYC - I'm very pleased you really love this story. I will definitely be continuing with it.

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**Being Human**

**Chapter Three - Sugar and Worms**

Things were going smoothly between the five house mates; Tom and Hal continued on at the café, Loki and Rosie continued busking around Cardiff, and Annie continued on babysitting Eve during the day – all four of the others being just a phone call away in case on any emergencies.

Loki and Rosie had been staying at the B&B for just under a week and, so far, all was calm.

Hal and Tom arrived home first at a quarter past six, Rosie appeared half an hour later by herself, although she had her companion's guitar and top hat.

Still no used to being around the other three yet, Rosie scurried up the stairs after a meek 'hello' to the household, where she visited Loki's room to deposit her guitar and hat before entering her own room.

The room currently inhabited by Rosie was a generously sized area with a single bed, wardrobe and a chest of drawers in the corner beside the window. There was a matching bedside table and empty bookcase, an unused desk sat in front of the window. The walls were all a solid pale green colour, bar the wall the bed was against – which looked to have been wallpapered in the 80s and left untouched since, the colour of dry grass with a tiny diamond pattern printed on in red.

'Please hurry, Loki.' Rosie thought as she slid the violin case onto the desk, she took her dark purple off and gently draped it over the back of the chair beneath it.

Loki hadn't told Rosie what was wrong with her, only telling the young Dhampiresa to go on and she'd be along soon. Rosie hadn't been worried as the Shape Shifter would be out hunting for her, the half-vampire's stomach gurgled at the thought of food.

"Hungry?" A voice from behind her asked, she spun around startled to find Hal standing against her doorway.

Rosie averted her eyes from the old one down to her feet, which were covered by All-Star style _Lee Cooper _shoes, "A little..."

"Why aren't you out hunting for yourself?" He questioned, if it hadn't been for his impressive vampiric hearing, he might have missed what she'd whispered.

"When I start I... Um, can't stop myself..." Rosie answered softly, she had left Loki almost an hour ago and it was getting dark outside with rain clouds threatening to break, her companion should be back any time now. "I don't want to hurt anyone. Loki hunts for me."

"Have you ever had human blood?" Hal asked, if she'd never had it before then her thirst would be easier to control.

Unfortunately, Rosie nodded her head, "When my mother died, I nearly killed a man – then Loki saved me.

"I see..." Hal hummed in thought, Annie was still a little on edge with the half-Vampire around, but the canine Shape Shifter seemed to have control over her. Still...

***F*A*N*G*&*C*L*A*W***

Half an hour. Half an hour and all Loki had found was a fox. Her messenger bag was safely stashed beneath a car with its rear tyre clamped, it was practically unnoticeable through the dark now.

Rosie needed to feed, and since all the Shape Shifter had managed to get was a measly fox, she had to step up her game.

Loki's form grew from an average sized Red Fox into a common brown and black furred German Shepherd, her blue eyes remained the same. She had to focus. The sharp scent of a cat caught her attention; and when she followed it down an alley, she discovered it to be not just one cat, but at least ten.

The next few minutes turned into a feline massacre, with the sound of panicking cats and necks being broken disturbing the quiet. Out of the ten cats, Loki managed to get eight of them.

Silence hung in the air as Loki gathered up the bodies into a pile against the wall, nice and neat without a drop of blood spilt. Well, Loki had received a rather nasty scratch across her cheek from one of the larger cats.

The Shepherd rushed to the abandoned and clearly beat up red ford, grabbed the bag from beneath with her teeth and made her way back to the alley, where the dog morphed into a human being.

Loki opened the messenger and lifted out two different packets of medication from a small front area, slipping them into her back pocket before stuffing the carcasses on top of the fox. When she had collected her haul, she clipped the bag shut and slipped the strap over her shoulder.

As she exited the alley to an empty street, her phone began ringing, the theme tune to the British sci-fi show _Doctor Who_ playing until she answered it, "Hello?"

"Finally!" A male voice chuckled. "I thought you'd never answer."

"Don't be so dramatic," Loki laughed back as she began her trek back to the B&B. "How are you?"

***F*A*N*G*&*C*L*A*W***

Even though Hal had known the Dhampiresa held no threat towards baby Eve, it brought him (and especially Annie) peace of mind now that he'd had a talk with the half-Vampire.

Hal had left Rosie twenty minutes beforehand to allow her time to absorb their conversation, hoping the Dhampiresa would do nothing to provoke the protective ghost. Just as Hal started descending the stairs, a key was slid into the lock on the door and turned, opening with a click before it was pushed open by Loki – a black _iPhone4 _pressed against her ear.

So engrossed in her conversation was she that she failed to notice Hal staring at her from the bottom of the stairs, the first thing the Vampire spotted were the four angry scratch marks on her cheek, just beneath her left eye.

"How's Annie?" Loki asked, and Hal had been about to reply when he heard the man she was talking to answer. A feeling he hadn't felt in years flared, it was tiny, but there – jealousy. He didn't understand why he felt like that, but didn't ponder over the emotion. "She hasn't spoken to me in a while, won't answer her phone to me," - this was when she spotted Hal, and gave him a wave - "I'll talk to you tomorrow Ree, sleep tight."

"Busy night?" Hal asked casually as she hung up, his nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell of the dead animals in her messenger bag.

"Nearly had nothing," Loki smiled, slipping her _iPhone _into her pocket. "Slim pickings. Could you fill me a glass of water while I take these up to Rosie?"

"Certainly." Hal replied and Loki gave him a smile in thanks as she tiptoed her way up the stairs, not wanting to disturb anyone.

Loki stopped at her own room first, untying and kicking off her orange Converse onto her bed before making her way down to Rosie's room. She knocked three times on the wood, then waited form Rosie to respond.

"Come in." The Dhampiresa called.

"Hey, I'm back," Loki smiled towards her, stepping in and slipping the messenger bag off her shoulder. Rosie's eyes honed in hungrily on the bag as it was offered to her, holding within her dinner. "Have fun."

Rosie grunted in reply as she ripped into the first feline, which was when Loki headed back downstairs.

Loki shed her black _Harry Potter _house jacket and draped it over the back of the first bar stool she came to, leaving her in a fitting creamy white short sleeved t-shirt with a blue police box from the 1960s on it from _Doctor Who _ and a pair of dark wash jeans that hugged her hips.

"Thank you, Hal." Loki grinned as she took the offered glass of water from the Vampire, she set it onto the bar counter as she lifted out the two full sheets of pills from her pocket. She popped out two greenish blue capsules from one and a white tablet from the other, then replaced them into her jeans.

"What're you doing?" Hal asked, startled and curious at the same time, he couldn't have imagined her as a drug user, "What are they?"

"Well, this is aspirin," Loki held up the white tablet before popping it into her mouth and swallowing it with a gulp of water, she picked up the two teal capsules next. "These are a canine medication, for heart worms." - she threw them both into her mouth and swallowed them with a mouthful of water also.

"Heart worms?" Hal wondered aloud, it was very rare for a human to get the infestation. But, since she was a canine Shape Shifter, he supposed she was more prone to it than a normal human.

"Rosie and I took a trip to Florida a few months back," Loki explained as she took another swig before sliding onto the stood with her jacket on it. "Must have gotten them then, few days and I'll be right as rain. Least it isn't contagious."

"Annie would have you outside if it were." Hal commented, being only semi-serious.

"Probably!" Loki laughed heartily before the two of them fell into a comfortable silence.

"Who's Ree?" Hal asked, trying to sound passive about the question. "Your boyfriend? Short for Reece, I assume."

"What?! Boyfriend?!" Loki's grin widened in disbelief, refraining herself from laughing in fear of waking up Eve, only confusing Hal. Fair dues though, she hadn't talked about her family. "Ree is my younger brother, short for Sirius."

"Serious?" Hal repeated as more of a question, thinking it to be an odd name to call someone.

"Yeah, Sirius – named after the dog star." Loki confirmed, but furrowed her eyebrows at the relieved look that crossed Hal's face, although it went as fast as it had appeared.

"Annie is your sister then?" He continued.

"Younger sister, yeah. Anubis, after the Egyptian God – Annie for obvious reasons," Loki grinned as she explained, it was nice to talk about her siblings. "I was the first born, named after the Norse trickster God Loki."

"I see," Hal replied as he sat down in the chair beside the Shape Shifter, who spun her own chair around to face him. "I was under the impression that Shape Shifters, canine ones, lived in kennels – a close knit family group. Why are you not?"

"I know I don't look it, but I was born in the 1860s – into a kennel of twenty-something canine Shape Shifters. I was the first born of the Delta pair, the third-in-commands, and the first pup born in nearly seven years," Loki started, looking at Hal to see if he was coping and then continued after he'd nodded his head. "The Kennel had been larger once, but the Old Ones had discovered we were rather useful and took about a dozen and a half of the adults away," - she hadn't been born then, that was what her parents had told her - "Anyway, when my brother was born we were attacked by a clutter of feline Shifters. A few other pups had been born around the same time, we were vulnerable and unprepared."

"How many did you lose?"

"Half the adults and five pups, including my grandparents. I can't really remember," Loki shrugged her shoulders, she had been so young when it happened. "We were dwindling in numbers, only the Alpha pair, a couple of the hunters, a lookout, my parents and my brother survived – me too, of course. We split apart after the attack."

"Yes, I think I heard about that, actually," Hal realised, remembering vaguely that he'd heard lower Vampires gossiping about a large Kennel of Shifters nearly being wiped out. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"It was ages ago, no bother," Loki sipped the water, draining the little dribble at the very bottom. "I was born over in Northern Ireland, my brother up is Scotland, then Annie here in Wales."

"Why aren't they with you?"

"Our parent's died in 1951, hunters had found out where we were living. We drifted a part from each other..." Loki sighed deeply, even though it had happened forty-nine years ago, it was still a fresh wound. "I ended up in London, Sirius over in Ireland and Annie... France, I think. I stay in touch with Sirius, but Annie won't talk to me."

"And then you found Rosie?"

"And then I found Rosie."

"A tale for another day?" Hal guessed as Loki stood from here seat.

"Another day," Loki smiled sadly as she lifted her glass and stepped through the two-way kitchen doors, setting the empty glass into the sink as she lifted an off maroon mug and flicked the kettle on. She dropped a teabag in and, after locating the white bag, dumped two teaspoons of sugar into the mug. "Fancy a cuppa?"

"No, thank you," Hal declined, wanting the weekend to come sooner. "I think I'll retire for the night."

"Rightio, see you in the morning." Loki called out and listened as he climbed the stairs, hearing his bedroom door click shut faintly.

No sooner had Hal left did the kettle start boiling, Loki poured the scalding water into the mug and stirred the liquid with the teaspoon, adding the milk to cool it down before mixing and then going to sit back down at the bar.

Taking a slow, deep breath, Loki found herself captivated by her calm heartbeat. _Lub-dub-lub. Lub-dub-lub. Lub-dub-lub._

A human's heart was a steady beat of two, _lub-dub._ A werewolf's pulse was the same, _lub-dub. _A vampire's heartbeat... was un-existant. A Shape shifter's heartbeat was three, beating faster to cope with their fast metabolism, quick healing and the shape shifting their body was put through.

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**That's the end of the original chapters... For now. Mwahahahaha!**

**Next chapter will be the four episode of series four, where Kirby comes in and completely messes up the status quo of the house. It won't be long, I want to get this story on the road!**

**You guys know what to do, review for me! Review for me and Loki & Rosie (and me!) will love you for it!**


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